Skating shoe



A. E. MURRAY Sept. 22, 1959 SKATING SHOE Filed Oct. 25, 1957 FIG.5

INVENTOR. 141a L. Murray ATTO R N United States Patent 2,904,902 KA SHOEAlan E. Murray, Bridgeport, Conn". Application October 25, 1957, Serial,No. 692,414. 3 Claims. (CI, 36-25) This application relates to shoesdesigned for attachment of skates having flat plates of the type thatare screwed or riveted to the shoe and to a process of producing thesame, and is a continuation-in-part. of. my earlier application SerialNo. 372,685, filed August .6, 1953, now abandoned.

Broadly speaking, in making the shoes of the present invention, castsare made of the wearers feet, which casts may be made in any desiredmanner as shown in my earlier Patent No. 2,120,987, dated June 21, 1938,and in my copending applications Serial Nos- 621,226 and 650,924. Onsuch a cast a molded shoe liner of felt impregnated with latex is formedso that it will exactly conform to the Wearers foot. These liners.completely cover the feet and run up around the ankles high enough togive the support which skaters ordinarily demand. Outside of theseliners I build up a virtually completely rigid structure which runsunder the soles of. the wearers feet and up around and Over the toes andaround the heels. These cups are formed of a plurality of layers ofmoldable plastic material such as a celluljosic ester; for example,cellulose nitrate or cellulose acetate which are molded over the linerand are virtually united into a single piece, as by the use of asolvent. By having a plurality of layers, added stiifness is given tothe structure which embraces and holds the foot firmly and closely butsubstantially without any flexibility whatsoever.

Outside of these cups and liners 1 preferably have a covering layer andfinally build up the heel and sole portions under the forward part of;the foot to form flat platforms to which the steel plates of the skatesmay be screwed. 7

By this construction I have the comfortable fitting liners which holdthe users feet firmly down intothe rigid cups and have the rigid cupswhich follow the. contours of the sole of the foot and give the foot thesupport and stiifness which is of great importance in a skating shoe.The shoes which I produce are so rigid that it would be virtuallyimpossible to use them for ordinary walking but inasmuch as they are to,be screwed to the steel plates of a skate, this rigidity is desirable.

The exact nature of the shoes and the 'way in which they are made can bereadily understood from the following illustrative example, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, in whichi- Fig. 1 is anelevation ofmy shoe attached to a skate with a part of the heel brokenaway'to show details of construction; 1

Fig. 2 is an elevation showing the way the shoe is built up on a cast;

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 showing a further step in theconstruction;

Fig. 4 is detail showing the heel construction, and

Fig. 5 is a bottom View showing the heel in place but with the flatplatforms for attachment of the skate not added.

In making the shoe of my invention, I attach to the ice 2 cast 28 at thetop line of the shoe to be made, a hori-' zontal rear edge liner 34 ofsoft leather and then attach to the front of the cast 28 a front leatheredge liner 35 having wings 37 of the same vertical dimension as the rearedge liner 34 so that said wings produce abutting" joints with the endsof the rear edge liner 34 as shown in Fig. 2. Next I put on to thebottom of the cast 28 a monks cloth sole-piece 38 which extends underthe whole bottom portion of the cast and up all around the same to justbelow the top of theundercut line as showtiin Fig. 2.

The sole-piece 38, being made to adhere to the cast 28,

is made with thin or thick latex as described in my Patent No.2,493,310. This is applied wherever the sole-piece 38 contacts the cast.Then I apply to the cast a soft overall cover-piece of monks cloth 39shaped as shown in Fig. 3, so that the front edges form an abuttingjoint 39a over the top front of the. cast, tucks being made and out offbelow the sole-piece 38 to which some thick or thin latex, also someplaster of Paris, is applied. Now I apply over the overall cover-piece athin ,5 thick felt-piece 40 for smoothness and warmth. This member 40is.

initially'of a general horseshoe shape and runs around the back of theheel and with the meeting edges over the front of the shoe. It extendsdown underneath the bot; tom of the sole-piece 38 forming front and rearpuckers underneath the cast which are cut off to produce meeting edges.For this purpose the felt-piece 40 as well as the overall cover-piece3.2 with which it contacts will be impregnated or coated with thin orthick latex, s,ome, powdered plaster of Paris being applied to the latexif desired. I then apply to the bottom of felt-piece 40 a.

felt-piece 41 for cushioning and warmth, this piece being about 7 thickand of the same shape as the solepiece 38. It extends up on the sidesand back about as, high as the sole-piece 38 making a joint wit thefeltpiece 40. This likewise is attached with latex, with or withoutplaster of Paris and should. be pressed up against the cast to conformto the under surface Of the cast. The edges of pieces 40 and 41 can betapered if desired when being applied. The shoe is then'dried forabouttwo days and the exposed surfaces of the pieces 4!), and,4 1 arebrushed oif to leave them clear for attachment of the rigid cups whichare a feature of my invention.

It will be noted that at this stage in the manufacture of the shoe Ihave a complete shoe-like member which exactly conforms to the shape ofthe foot and will have a cushioning contact with the foot.

I now form around the bottom part .of the soft sl de. like member arigid cup which will conform to the shape of the foot to embrace itfirmly but will not allow of any appreciable flexing. This cup is madeup by soaking sheets of cellulosic material in solvent so that they be=come soft and readily moldable. Such cellulosic material h material hheappea nc of blotting p per before having a solvent applied thereto.Such material is soaked in a so-called solvent which actually swells andsoftens the material rather than actually dissolving it. It then becomesplastic and can be molded to the desired shape. The sheets of plasticare cut to approximately the desired shape and then put under the castand the shoe body already described and pressed firmly up and around thecast and up over the sides and up under and around in front of the toes.The first sheet applied designated by the numeral 42 may come up high atthe heel to the area behind the ankle bone to provide a stiff countermember and perhaps a little more than half way up the toes as shown inFig. 1. Between the toes and heel the first sheet is applied to extendup substantially above the undercut line at each side of the foot toenvelop and support the curved portion of the foot along each side andthe top edge of the sheet dips slightly down to pass immediately belowthe ankle bone of the foot. When this sheet is in place and while it isstill softened with the solvent, a second sheet 43 is applied which doesnot come up quite as high. As best shown in Fig. l, the top edge of thesecond sheet approximately follows the undercut line at the side of thefoot which coincides with the point of maximum breadth of the foot butin the rear this sheet extends above the undercut line to reinforce thecounter member. F inally a third sheet 44 is also added which is stilllower on the outside. The top edge of the last sheet extends upwardlyfrom the sole to envelop the bottom curved portion of the foot but thetop edge stops just short of the undercut line of the foot These threesheets are firmly pressed together and when the solvent dries out theyform a rigid integral cup which has almost the rigidity of metal butwhich exactly conforms to the users foot and is fully lined andcushioned by the shoe member about which the cup is formed. It will benoted that the natural stiffness of the sole portion will be reinforcedby the integral upturned sides. As the sheets do not all extend up thesame height, some slight lateral flexing is permitted at the top, butthese portions will be highly resilient and spring back to shape tosupport and contain the foot of the wearer. The members 42, 43 and 44may be cut to desired shape but ordinarily it will be found preferableto have some excess material and trim oif this excess material with arazor blade after they are molded into position.

A heel 45 is built up with a number of layers of the plastic materialsoftened by the solvent to give the desired heel height. As the shoe isto be mounted on a skate blade 46 carried on front and rear plates 47and 48, it is necessary to have the front of the shoe built to conformwith the front plate 47 and added plastic material is used for thispurpose as indicated at 50. It will be noted that this platform replacesthe usual sole on the shoe and gives the greatest attainable iceclearance laterally, but at the same time fully supports the plate 47.

Around the top of the shoe and extending downwardly around a V-shapedcut-out 53 to be made within the edge liner 35 I apply a cord 52 ofcotton or other fibers which is attached with latex. Similarly a cord 54runs around the bottom of the shoe as shown in Fig. 5. This cord will beembedded in the material 50.

As an outside cover for this shoe I apply a piece of soft leather 55such as kid or kangaroo which covers the whole shoe without any seam atthe back, the meeting edges being at the two cords 52 and 54 and down tothe lower edge of the heel 45 and up to the breast or front of the heel45. Where the leather 55 meets the cords 52 and 54, one leather edge canabut the cord and the other leather edge can be skived and extend justover and beyond the cord 4; to A". If desired, a flat leather heel-piece56 may be cemented under the heel 45 and a flat leather-piece 57 may becemented under the platform 50 to contact the skate plate 47. A furtherleatherpiece 58 can, if desired, be cemented to the breast or front ofthe heel 45. All these leather pieces may be applied U shoe between thearms ofthe cord 52 and the shoe is cut off at the top to within about ofthe cord 52.

The shoe is now substantially shaped and the cast can be removed bybreaking it out if necessary. Finally the shoe is brushed out andcleaned and the eyelets 53a are inserted. If desired, a tongue 59 isformed over the cast and inserted in the shoe. This tongue preferably ismade up of two pieces of leather 60 and 61 with a narrow piece of felt62 between them. If desired, the shoe may be provided with a pluralityof cut-out V-shaped notches between the eyelets to facilitate bendingthe ankle while skating.

By this construction I produce an integral shoe which exactly conformsto the sole of the foot of the wearer and is softly cushioned on theinside and runs up to give support to the wearer around the ankle butwhich is held under the wearers toes and sole and about the heel so thatan absolutely firm contact is had with the wearers foot. The addedplatforms prevent this shaped contour from being distorted when theskate is attached to the shoe as by screws 49.

What I claim is:

1. A skating shoe comprising a soft cushioned shoe body adapted toclosely embrace the wearers foot and run under the sole thereof andshaped to follow the contours of the foot, a rigid cup member made of aplurality 'of plies of resilient material united into an integralstructure forming the bottom part of such shoe outside of saidcushioning body, which conforms to the shape of the wearers foot andsupports the foot without permitting appreciable flexing of the soleportion and which has diminishing rigidity towards the top edge thereofso that the opening at the top may be slightly expanded to receive thefoot, the top edge of said cup member being extended upwardly beyond theundercut line along the side of the foot to envelop and support thecurved portion of the foot along each side and said top edge beingextended upwardly into the area behind the ankle to provide a stiffcounter member for the heel and platforms built up below said cup at theheel and forward portions of the shoe to form, substantially flat areasadapted for attachment to the steel plates of a skate without modifyingthe contours of said cup member.

2. A shoe as specified in claim 1 in which the cup member is formed froma plurality of layers of resilient cellulosic plastic material molded tothe shape of the foot and united into a single body with the top edgesof each of said layers being positioned in staggered relationship in theside wall of the shoe.

3. A shoe as specified in claim 2 in which the top edge of one of saidlayers is positioned above the undercut line at the side of the foot andin which the top edge of a second one of said layers is positioned belowthe undercut line along the side of the foot.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,147,455 Murray Feb. 14, 1939 visi

